Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Posted by
Shequeta

HBO NABS PRISON DOCUMENTARY

Omar Broadway was arrested in 1999 in East Orange for car-jacking a taxi with a sawed off shotgun. As a member of the East Coast Bloods, Omar was jailed in The Security Threat Group Management Unit (STGMU) of Newark, New Jersey's Northern State Prison, a section of the jail infamous for housing some of the east coast's top ranking gang members.

Sadly, in this prision, as well as plenty of others (see the newly released movie "Felon"), the inmates are often abused and denied the most basic of privileges at the hands of the prision officials. Broadway wanted to offer us a first person look at this treatment and as a result was able to smuggle a video camera into his cell where he recorded prisoner abuse and riots through a small window in his cell.

The film premiered at the '08 Tribeca Film Festival. HBO is going to put the film in a limited amount of theaters in New York and Los Angeles in an effort that it can recieve Oscar consideration for next year. Sounds interesting.